Lillian+McCullough

Amidst the coverage of Edith Green's death is a news snippet noting that Dr. James P. A. Nolan of Brookline, MA was arrested for the criminal abortion death of 18-year-old Lillian McCullough.

According to one article, within three hours of Lillian's death, "the police had arrested the physician and Richard A. King, 21, and Mrs. Abbie M. Graham, 37, both of Waltham, as accessories."

One more note: Lillian's abortion was evidently typical of pre-//Roe// abortions in that [|it was performed by a physician].

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see [|Abortion Deaths 1910-1919].



 For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources: New York Times 7/14/26, 7/15/26, 7/16/26, 7/20/26

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